[ Fastwater Staffing ] Digital Payload Architect

The company provides full relocation support, including immigration assistance, and offers a relocation bonus upon arrival in Montreal. Selected candidates may work remotely during the initial months while their immigration process is being completed; however, the long-term expectation is for the individual to transition to onsite work in Montreal once relocation has been finalized.

Tasks summary

Architecture Concept & Requirements

• Establish functional, performance, environmental and security requirements with mission

stakeholders & CONOPs.

• Translate requirements into clear payload performance parameters and maintain bidirectional

traceability throughout the project lifecycle.

• Establish with cybersecurity team payload‑specific requirements & embed resilience and

security by design.

Payload Architecture Definition

• Define the overall digital regenerative payload architecture (optical/RF ISLs, antenna arrays,

• digitizers/ onboard processing, Feeder links, master reference oscillator & clock
• synchronizations).

• Define Interface Control Documents (ICDs) with spacecraft bus, ground segment and payload

specific subsystems.

• Define high‑speed data‑bus I/F (Serdes, SpaceWire, SpaceFibre, Ethernet, CAN, fiber).

Trade‑Study & Technology Road‑Mapping

• Lead trade‑offs for technologies, ASIC/FPGAs/SoCs, high‑speed data‑bus, and on‑board

processing algorithms, PVT.

• Identify emerging technologies and incorporate them into the company’s long‑term roadmap.

System Modeling & Performance Simulation

• Build end‑to‑end models of the signal chain (optical/RF, analog/digital) using

MATLAB/Simulink, SystemView or Python‑based toolkits.

• Run Monte‑Carlo and tolerance analyses to verify gain, SNR, dynamic range, spectral

efficiency, G/T, EIRP and other key metrics.

• Optimize payload design and performance with operation with traffic models/CONOPs.

Simulation & Analysis

• Oversee performance simulations & analysis (Gain, Spurious, Linearity, SNR, dynamic range,

spectral efficiency, pointing, G/T, EIRP…etc.) and tolerance budgeting.

• Optimize Payload DC power budget with traffic & utilization models.

Hardware & Firmware

• Own system‑level specifications to hardware designers, review schematics, layouts, thermal &

mechanical interfaces.

• Oversee MODCODs selection and on‑board processing pipelines; define BIST, timing, latency

• and deterministic behavior.
• Cross‑Functional Coordination, Stakeholder & Program Interaction

• Communicate technical status, risk assessments and trade‑study results to senior

management and/or customers or partners.

• Act as the primary technical liaison with Electrical, Power, Structures, Thermal, Software,

Ground Segment and Mission Operations teams to resolve integration issues early.

• Support payload design authority in System design reviews and Mission Operations

hand‑over.

• Support B&P (Phase 0 & pre-phase A).

Integration & Verification (IVV)

• Author Payload Verification Master Plan covering unit‑test, subsystem‑test, payload‑level test,

environmental and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test campaigns.

• Define test‑automation framework set‑up, test‑case definition, results analysis and test‑report

certification.

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor, guide junior engineers and interns.
• Act as technical liaison with customers, partners and external vendors
• Act as Continuous Improvement stakeholder
• Contribute to the company’s knowledge‑base, process enhancements, and standards development.

Configuration, Documentation & Standards Management

• Ensure all artefacts, analysis, software, deliverables and documentation are version controlled

in PLM environment.

• Chair design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, MRR/TRR…etc.).
• Support Technology Road‑Mapping & Innovation.

On Orbit & Operations Support

• Technical support to Mission Operations for routine payload health monitoring, contingency

handling and performance trending.

• Lead root‑cause investigations for on‑orbit anomalies; update design baselines and

lessons‑learned.

• Analyze on‑orbit telemetry, update filter parameters, and generate performance reports.
• Define SOOH and associated operator training.

Required Qualifications

•  B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace or Physics (M.Sc. preferred) with 12 + years of digital
• regenerative payload system design experience on LEO/MEO missions.
•  Comprehensive knowledge of digital regenerative communications, SDR, DSP, DVB RCS/SX
• protocols, Modulation schemes, Class of Service, Networking, MPLS, 2G, 5G, NTN.
•  Strong technical writing ability (requirements, ICDs, test procedures, risk reports) and
• presentation skills; comfortable interfacing with customers, suppliers and senior leadership.
•  Strong understanding of aerospace system engineering fundamentals.
•  Hands-on individual who can support systems integration processes and capability to test
• systems and resolve problems.
•  Experience with Confluence and JIRA.
•  Demonstrated capability to efficiently work with little supervision.
•  Ability to distill complex problems to fundamentals to solve with analysis, similarity, or
• creativity.
•  Demonstrate excellent written and oral communication skills in English; knowledge of French
• will be considered an asset (Contact with clients outside Quebec and work on deliverables in
• English).